Illustration Christine Fuller
The illustration is creative interpretation and intended for humour only. No offence is intended or implied.
The following is published in the Downham Market Gazette on the 22nd July 1905:
East Harling Petty Sessions
George Anderson of Great Ellingham was charged with trespassing in search of conies (rabbits) at Great Ellingham on June 26th.
James Reeder said he was bailiff to Mr Colman of Great Ellingham. He saw defendant on his master’s land. He had a ferret on a line in a rabbit hole, and a dog.
Defendant said he had been rat-catching with his brother, and he did not get any rabbits or try to get any. Defendant was ordered to pay penalty and costs £3.
The Chairman said the Bench had inflicted the maximum penalty as this was the eighth time defendant had been convicted for similar offences.
Rural Life
Poaching and rat-catching were once a common part of rural life. They were however an essential means of pest control, survival and employment. Many impoverished agricultural labourers relied on the gains from poaching , even if it meant facing the consequences of being caught in the act.
George Anderson
We have met George Anderson on a number of occasions. The newspaper report mentions that this was George’s eighth conviction for poaching!
George also used the name George Anderson Dunbar. You will find more about the Anderson Dungar family in this article.
James Reeder
The 1901 census captures 36 year old James G Reeder and his wife Beatrice R at Stalham [Stalland] Common, Great Ellingham. James is a farm steward. With them are their three children. Nine-year-old Albert G, 5-year-old Mabel R and two month old Cecil J.
James was born in Great Ellingham to Peter and Maria Reeder. He was baptised in the Church of St James on the 5th May, 1867. On the 18th December, 1890, he marries Beatrice Rosetta Trett in the Parish Church at Great Ellingham.
They lived in Great Ellingham for around 20 years.
By 1911, James and Rosetta (as I believe she was known) moved to Barton Bendish, in West Norfolk.
Sources:
22nd July 1905 Downham Market Gazette. Viewed vie The British Newspaper Archive
1901 census RG13/1867/73
Great Ellingham Parish Registers. Norfolk Record Office. PD 609. Also available via familysearch.org and various subscription genealogy websites